The preseason’s over. Hurricane season begins now.

And on cue, the tropics have begun firing this weekend. The National Hurricane Center has identified two areas of disturbed weather in the deep tropics worth following at this time.

The computer models are having a field day with these systems, some of which develop both areas of low pressure into hurricanes and bring them generally toward the United States.

Below, for example, is how the Canadian Model forecasts their development in seven days. The first storm (NHC area #1) appears to be at hurricane strength just north of the Dominican Republic, with the system moving west-northwest. The second system (NHC area #2) hasn’t yet reached the Lesser Antilles, but appears to be at least a strong tropical storm.

FSU/Canadian Model

It’s worth noting that the Canadian model is somewhat “bullish” on developing low pressure systems into tropical storms and hurricanes. However, another model, the GFS, also appears to develop the second low-pressure area (NHC area #2).

The GFS brings the storm, probably a hurricane, to just northwest of the British Virgin Islands some eight days from now.

FSU/GFS model

At day eight, or next Monday, the GFS appears to be turning the system to the northwest, likely curving it away from the United States. But let’s be honest, the models at day seven or day eight of their forecast run are highly, highly speculative.

But they do give us an inkling that the tropics are about to heat up. Whether the storms will make it all the way to the United States is something we simply cannot say right now.

Oh yeah, if you’re wondering what that blob to the far right of the GFS image is, you guessed it. That’s another potential tropical storm developing deep in the tropics.